Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr., an American novelist and MacArthur Fellow, is noted for his dense and complex novels. His work, fiction and nonfiction, encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including but not limited to the fields of history, music, science, and mathematics. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began writing the novels for which he is best known: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), and Mason & Dixon (1997).

This international event is taking place in Greece, on the edges of the Mediterranean, of the European Union and of Western History, where the organisers have an opportunity not only to discuss Pynchon’s new novel - his eighth, titled Bleeding Edge – but also to "reconsider the outer limits and internal limitations of the whole field of Pynchon studies." Participants are from universities in the USA, UK, Canada, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, UAE, and more. The event has been funded by Panteion University, the University of Antwerp, the University of Michigan and Pilotless Press.